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Student charged with wiretapping after livestreaming meeting at Maryland Rep. Harris' office
The Baltimore Sun ^ | February 14, 2019 | Lillian Reed and Jeff Barker

Posted on 02/15/2019 7:43:51 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

A Salisbury University student has been charged with illegal wiretapping after prosecutors said he streamed a meeting with a congressional staffer for Maryland Rep. Andy Harris via Facebook Live without permission.

Jake Burdett, 20, was charged last week with two felony counts of making an illegal recording and distributing the video filmed during a Maryland Marijuana Justice rally at Harris’s Salisbury office in October, the state prosecutor’s office announced Thursday.

Marijuana legalization protesters have long tangled with Harris, who in 2014 worked to block full legalization of the drug in the District of Columbia. A protest outside the Republican’s Capitol Hill office last year led to the arrest of two demonstrators on charges of consumption of marijuana in a prohibited public space.

Burdett expects to plead plead guilty in Wicomico County on March 1 to one count of illegally taping and broadcasting, his attorney, Mark Goldstone, said Thursday.

State prosecutors allege Burdett and other advocates at the Salisbury rally agreed to meet with a congressional staffer in his office, which could only seat a few people. When another member of Harris’s staff noticed several people on their phones, the group was told they were not allowed to record because of an office policy, the state prosecutor’s office said in its news release.

Burdett confirmed in an email Thursday that he continued to stream the meeting on Facebook Live without the staffer’s consent but said he was not aware it was against the law and deleted the footage the following day after finding out it was illegal, he said.

“We need to ensure people are respecting boundaries set by Maryland’s wiretapping laws,” said State Prosecutor Emmet Davitt in the release.

(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: abortion; andyharris; dope; dualconsent; facebook; facebooklive; jakeburdett; legalization; liberaltarians; libertarians; marijuana; maryland; medicalmarijuana; pot; pothead; potheads; protests; recording; salisbury; stoner; stoners; washingtondc; weapon; weed; whyitscalleddope; wiretapping
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1 posted on 02/15/2019 7:43:51 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: 100American; Abundy; Albion Wilde; AlwaysFree; AnnaSASsyFR; bayliving; BFM; Bigg Red; ...

Maryland “Freak State” PING!


2 posted on 02/15/2019 7:46:44 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Modern feminism: ALL MEN BAD!!!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I wonder how many social media livestreams would technically count as “wiretapping”—and are Facebook and YouTube liable?


3 posted on 02/15/2019 7:50:01 PM PST by Fedora
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

It is not illegal to record a public employee in a public place. The government does not operate in secret.


4 posted on 02/15/2019 7:54:10 PM PST by gunsequalfreedom
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Doubt this could withstand a vigorous 1st Amendment challenge.


5 posted on 02/15/2019 7:56:37 PM PST by thoughtomator (Nobody is coming to save the day)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The only purpose of a law making it illegal to record your own conversations is to prevent the collection of evidence against politicians and LEOs.


6 posted on 02/15/2019 8:02:02 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Capitalism produces EVERYTHING Socialists/Communists/Democratic-Socialists wish to "redistribute.")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Nonsense! The government is proficient at making everyone a criminal when it suits their needs. Do we still have the Bill of Rights?


7 posted on 02/15/2019 8:05:35 PM PST by Fungi
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

What an idiot. Only Hillary and the FBI are allowed to do that.


8 posted on 02/15/2019 8:05:48 PM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary walks free, equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Burdett is about to find out about MD’s two-party consent to record law.

Linda Tripp can tell him all about it.


9 posted on 02/15/2019 8:07:12 PM PST by sauropod (Yield to sin, and experience chastening and sorrow; yield to God, and experience joy and blessing.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Office policy is not a law.


10 posted on 02/15/2019 8:08:48 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

John and Alice Martin of Fort White, FL, recorded a telephone call that included Newt Gingrich, and handed the recording over to Congressman James McDermott, who immediately handed it over to various MSM outlets. This happened in 1997.

To the best of my knowledge, nothing happened to any of them.


11 posted on 02/15/2019 8:25:04 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: sauropod

It is an outrage that you can’t memorialize a conversation you are a party to. And, seriously, a felony? That is that magic word that deprives you of rights for life.

This is bull Hillary.


12 posted on 02/15/2019 8:36:34 PM PST by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse” but most people are unaware of the many felonies that are just an app away.


13 posted on 02/15/2019 8:39:31 PM PST by lightman (Byzantine Troparia: The "praise choruses" of antiquity.)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

“...congressional staffer in his office...” Would someone’s private office qualify as as a public place?...even in Maryland?....Would you know the relevant MD law on this? Thanks.


14 posted on 02/15/2019 9:06:38 PM PST by Postman (The flies seek our domestic enemies.....but ain't no flies on DJT....MAGA)
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To: Steely Tom

Maybe Flori-Duh only has a one-party-consent wiretapping law.


15 posted on 02/15/2019 9:17:22 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Modern feminism: ALL MEN BAD!!!)
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To: Postman

I actually think there was a ruling out of a Maryland court that said inside a government is a public space, there can be no secrets. I might have the state wrong but someone just got acquitted over this same thing. I try and find the article. Take this as discussion and happy to have reply.


16 posted on 02/16/2019 12:31:59 AM PST by gunsequalfreedom
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To: gunsequalfreedom
Maryland does not appear to be a single-party consent state for the purposes of recording conversations. Looks like neighboring Virginia is and also has an exception for public places where there's no reasonable expectation of privacy.

I'm in a one party consent state. Consequently at work I've become used to people trying to quietly record or sticking their phone in my face to record me trying to get a reaction when they can't get their way because we've chosen to follow the law and/or policy. I don't have time for their games and don't play with them.

17 posted on 02/16/2019 1:22:31 AM PST by newzjunkey (WALL. NO AMNESTY.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

So the NSA can record all our phone calls and emails 24/7/365 and that’s ok, but we can’t record a public “servant” in a publicly paid for space. OK, got it, off to the gulag with you!


18 posted on 02/16/2019 4:40:27 AM PST by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Burdett expects to plead plead guilty

Well then.

19 posted on 02/16/2019 5:24:49 AM PST by Buttons12
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
What is really shocking is that the MD Attorney General allowed the law to be applied to a Republican.

Probably the first time in forever.

But smoking joints in a Congressional office, the “confined space” has brought forth no charges.

Must have priorities.

20 posted on 02/16/2019 5:54:30 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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